Landsberg to fight green battle from afar

"I'm looking forward mostly to spending time with my family, but what I also plan on doing is getting involved in the same area," she told The Royal Gazette.

Ms Landsberg moves to Melbourne on Sunday, along with husband David Cash, and children Alexandra, Lachlan and Lindsey — but the family plan to divide their time between their Bermuda home and Down Under.

After serving for two and a half years as president, Ms Landsberg said she's now making way for a reorganised Greenrock.

"One thing that's unusual about Greenrock — you could say we're very focused on how we could work ourselves out of the job," she said. "We're not here to remain as a charity for the long term — we would love not to be needed in ten or 15 years time."

However, the organisation, founded in 2003, still has much work ahead of it.

"There are a lot of environmental charities doing great work in conservation and education. But I think we are the only one that is working mostly on behaviour, on people's decisions — that's where our speciality is.

"Greenrock is in a unique space. We rely on everybody else's actions. Our raison d'être is to be an enabler and a catalyst."

As a result, she added, the group has functioned "particularly well in partnership with other organisations, whether it's the National Trust, Keep Bermuda Beautiful or the Department of Waste Management".

"We talk about solutions, not just negatives," she said. "I'd love to say we've had a lot of change. I've seen increased awareness; I have not seen a lot of change in people's choices."

However, she said she sees change on the horizon for Bermuda's "out of date" attitude to energy use.

"Right now, as individuals and as businesses, we're paying these enormous energy bills and it's still considered to be the norm," she said. "But Belco is not the bad guy in any of this. They're simply responding to our demands. A lot of people grumble about their bills but they're not changing their habits."

She recalled the case of an unnamed local company several years ago, which was persuaded to switch its lights off for the annual Earth Hour.

"The facilities manager looked back and saw the place was still lit. They had way more security lights on than they needed and nobody had noticed. As a result, they turned half the lights off, and never turned them back on again."

Now, however, local businesses are starting to realise the importance — and the future implications — of saving power.

"Another thing that was unexpected, for me, was to find myself part of a peer group," Ms Landsberg said. "I didn't expect to find myself part of such a team."

As the daughter of a scientist in a country with pressing environmental issues of its own, she recalled growing up with the looming certainty of nuclear war — and said: "I worry about my children growing up with a similar thundercloud over them, of the world being an awful mess. The potential for that is there. But the solutions are also there."

Follow Us

Greenrock

Every little bit counts when it comes to a charity like Greenrock! Donations help us fund the day-to-day operations of the organisation, allowing us to maintain our existing programmes while exploring new programmes for the future.